8 Instances Of Chinese Nationals Arrested Across US College Campuses

Several Chinese nationals with ties to U.S. colleges and universities have been arrested over the past five years, sparking national security concerns.

President Donald Trump announced on August 25 that 600,000 students from China will be permitted to study in the United States. In an August interview with Daily Caller White House Correspondent Reagan Reese, Trump said that allowing Chinese students to study in America is the “right thing to do.” (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Trump Says Allowing Chinese Students Is ‘Right Thing To Do’)

He said in June that Chinese students could benefit U.S. schools, so long as they do not pose security risks.

Trump’s remarks mark a sharp shift from Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s May 28 announcement that the U.S. would begin revoking visas for certain Chinese nationals, including students linked to the Chinese Communist Party or studying sensitive fields.

Yet, even as the president has defended allowing Chinese international students at American universities, multiple cases over the last five years reflect a broader pattern of Chinese nationals being arrested, charged or detained in the U.S. over alleged national security risks and violations.

In recent months, several incidents have involved Chinese students and researchers in the U.S. allegedly attempting to smuggle biologically hazardous materials from China.

Chengxuan Han, a Chinese citizen and Ph.D. student at Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan, was arrested and charged with smuggling goods into the U.S. and making false statements, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office (USAO) for the Eastern District of Michigan.

Yesterday, @FBIDetroit arrested a second Chinese national on charges of smuggling biological materials into the U.S. and lying to federal agents.

This individual is Chengxuan Han, a citizen of the People’s Republic of China and a Ph.D. student in Wuhan, China. Han is the third… pic.twitter.com/TE4tJgtJQi

— FBI Director Kash Patel (@FBIDirectorKash) June 9, 2025

Prosecutors alleged Han sent four packages from China in 2024 and 2025 containing concealed biological materials addressed to individuals linked to a laboratory at the University of Michigan. When Han arrived at Detroit Metropolitan Airport on June 8, Han allegedly lied to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers about the shipments and investigators later discovered she wiped her electronic devices just days earlier.

During questioning, Han admitted to sending the packages, confirmed they contained roundworm-related biological material and acknowledged making false statements to U.S. authorities, according to the press release.

Zaosong Zheng, a 31-year-old Chinese national, was sentenced in January in Boston, Massachusetts, to time served, three years of supervised release and removal from the U.S. after pleading guilty to making false statements, according to the USAO of the District of Massachusetts’ press release.

Zheng, who came to the U.S. on a J-1 visa to conduct cancer research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, was arrested in December 2019 at Logan Airport with 19 stolen vials of biological material hidden in his luggage, the press release stated. He admitted he planned to take the samples to China to conduct research and publish under his own name.

The Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center is affiliated with Harvard University, according to the Harvard Crimson.

More recently Gu, a 22-year-old Chinese philosophy student headed to the University of Houston on a scholarship, was detained upon arrival in Texas in August, according to an Associated Press (AP) report.

Despite allegedly having the proper paperwork and prior study experience in the U.S., he was interrogated for 10 hours about ties to the Chinese Communist Party and the China Scholarship Council.

CBP officers questioned Gu about his parents’ membership in the Chinese Communist Party, his own involvement in the Communist Youth League and mentions of the China Scholarship Council in his chats — although he claimed he never received government funding, the AP reported. After three rounds of questioning, he was deported 36 hours later, with the removal paperwork indicating inadequate documentation, according to the outlet.

Similarly, five Chinese nationals studying at the University of Michigan were charged with lying to investigators and conspiring to delete photos after being confronted near Camp Grayling, a Michigan military training site that hosted drills with Taiwanese forces in 2023, The Detroit News reported.

The students were reportedly in the U.S. through a joint program between the University of Michigan and Shanghai Jiao Tong University. A member of the Utah National Guard allegedly spotted the group within roughly 15 feet of military equipment in a clearly marked restricted area, and they allegedly fled shortly after being discovered. (RELATED: Feds Charge Chinese Students In Connection To Potential Spying Incident At US Base Used To Train Taiwanese Troops)

Camp Grayling, located about 90 miles north of the planned U.S. facility for the China-linked battery company Gotion, underscores concerns over the company’s connections to its Chinese parent, Gotion High-Tech. Although Gotion had previously asserted the Chinese government was not involved in the American company, its U.S. subsidiary recently disclosed receiving Chinese state subsidies in FARA filings.

Ji Chaoqun, a 31-year-old Chinese national, was a student visa holder who had enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserves through a special recruitment program for foreign nationals with skills critical for national interest. He was convicted in September 2022 of acting as an agent for the Chinese government and lying to the U.S. Army, according to a press release for the USAO of the Northern District of Illinois.

He was sentenced to eight years in prison in 2023 for acting as an agent of China.

Chaoqun came to the United States in 2013 to study electrical engineering at the Illinois Institute of Technology, according to a 2018 press release.

Prosecutors said Chaoqun was working under the direction of Xu, a Deputy Division Director for the Jiangsu Province Ministry of State Security (JSSD).

Xu was previously convicted by the Department of Justice (DOJ) in October 2018 on espionage charges after allegedly attempting to steal trade secrets from major U.S. aviation and aerospace companies.

Chaoqun, Xu and another Chinese national, Shanlin Jin, were among a group of individuals granted clemency by former President Joe Biden as part of a November 2024 prisoner swap with China. The exchange followed years of diplomatic negotiations, according to a Reuters report.

Xiaolei Wu, a Chinese national and former Berklee College of Music student, was arrested and charged after allegedly threatening to cut off the hands of the individual who posted a pro-democracy flyer on campus and reported the individual’s family to Chinese authorities in October 2022.
(Photo by ISAAC LAWRENCE/AFP via Getty Images)

A federal jury later convicted Wu of cyberstalking, stalking and interstate transmission of threatening communications, according to a DOJ press release.

A Chinese University of Texas professor, Bo Mao, was accused of stealing American technology from a Silicon Valley start-up and passing it to a Chinese company, according to a 2020 Reuters report. He pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of making a false statement to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the outlet reported.

Mao initially pleaded not guilty when first charged on one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, according to a 2019 Law.com report.

He is among several recent defendants in U.S. cases tied to alleged Chinese espionage in academia. Around the same time, Charles Lieber, chair of Harvard’s Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, was charged over alleged ties to a Chinese recruitment program. The DOJ did not say Lieber was a Chinese national.

Additionally, a Boston University student and Chinese national was accused of concealing her role as a lieutenant in China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA), according to the DOJ.